The Leopard Chamber, due to its housing of fierce beasts, occupied a vast area with mountains, lakes, and dense forests. Finding the Emperor here was not easy.
After parting from Minister Song and moving away from the lakeside, Su Fengyi searched left and right, asking many young eunuchs. Following the sounds of bustling crowds and the mournful cries of tigers, she arrived at the tiger enclosure.
The Emperor, clad in armor and riding a tall, sleek black horse, was leading a group of Imperial Guards in a mounted hunt.
He and Su Fengyi were twin siblings, sharing the same face—they looked exactly alike.
When they were children, if they swapped clothes, even those who served them closely often struggled to tell them apart.
This face on a woman appeared both beautiful and spirited, but on a man, it gave a feminine appearance, blurring gender distinctions, embodying a delicate beauty.
Seeing Su Fengyi approach, the Emperor coldly turned away, as if not recognizing his royal sister.
Was the Emperor angry?
A worker’s essential skills, besides shifting blame and making promises, also include upward management.
The essence of upward management is not about managing or instructing the boss; the key lies in coaxing.
Everyone is a baby, bosses are babies, the Emperor is a baby. When a baby gets angry, you must hold them in your hands, cherish them in your heart, and coax them well.
Su Fengyi pretended not to know the Emperor was angry, rode over, and greeted him with a smile:
“Emperor, what are you hunting?”
Upon hearing this, the young Emperor glanced at her, snorted coldly, waved his whip, and rode ahead.
Su Fengyi signaled with her eyes to the Imperial Guard commander beside the Emperor, Lu Hong:
“What’s going on?”
The Imperial Guard commander Lu Hong, with the given name Zonglin, was twenty-one years old and the son of the Emperor’s wet nurse.
Back when the Emperor’s wet nurse first entered the palace, she wept in solitude out of longing for her young child at home. Unexpectedly, the Late Emperor saw her. After inquiring, the Late Emperor, unwilling to let the wet nurse and her child endure separation, issued an order to bring Lu Hong into the palace to be raised.
Lu Hong grew up with the Emperor and the Grand Princess. As children, the three ate and slept together, making him almost like a half-brother to them.
The three had a deep bond. From childhood to adulthood, Lu Hong witnessed the Emperor and Grand Princess quarrel no less than eight hundred times—perhaps even a thousand—and each time, Lu Hong mediated between them.
Lu Hong understood the temperaments of this sibling pair thoroughly. Often, even they themselves didn’t know why they suddenly argued, but Lu Hong could pinpoint the root cause.
This time was no exception. Riding alongside Su Fengyi, Lu Hong whispered:
“Shen, Song, Qiao.”
Lu Hong, having served as the Emperor’s personal guard for a long time, knew the Emperor’s temperament well. He understood that the Emperor most disliked those around him discussing his affairs externally, especially with ministers.
Thus, Lu Hong did not regard himself as a living person but trained himself into a taciturn blade. Over time, his emotions grew increasingly stable, and his speech became more concise. He avoided speaking whenever possible, and if he had to speak, he used one word instead of two.
Through this strict confidentiality, frugality with words, and the bond forged from growing up together, Lu Hong became the most trusted and valued person by the Emperor—this trust even surpassed that of Factory Overseer Qiao Gui.
Today, Lu Hong exceptionally spoke three words in one sentence, indicating that the Emperor was truly, very, very, very angry!
Su Fengyi asked: “Did the Emperor become displeased because I intercepted General Shen?”
Lu Hong nodded without speaking.
Su Fengyi asked again: “Did the Emperor get angry because I met with Minister Song?”
Lu Hong continued nodding without speaking.
Su Fengyi continued to ask, “Who stirred up trouble in front of the Emperor, Qiao Gui?”
Lu Hong nodded again, saying nothing.
Su Fengyi finally asked, “Then did you put in a good word for me?”
This time, Lu Hong nodded three times in a row, his eyes curved like stars. He smiled at Su Fengyi, a smile as gentle as a spring breeze, then sighed and shook his head helplessly.
Su Fengyi understood—Lu Hong had spoken many, many good words on her behalf, but the Emperor was still furious.
Su Fengyi patted Lu Hong on the shoulder:
“Good brother, you’re a real friend!
But in your position, you’re better off as a lone minister, not someone who speaks up for others.
The less you say, the more secure your position. The more you speak, the more likely you are to arouse suspicion. Don’t speak up for me again in the future—I’ll handle it myself.”
Cheers from the Imperial Guard sounded up ahead, likely because the prey the Emperor was hunting had been driven into the encirclement. Su Fengyi tugged on the reins and hurried over, planning to take advantage of the lively, jubilant scene to coax the Emperor and cheer up her boss.
Lu Hong, however, paused, placing his hand over his shoulder and staying still for a moment before riding to catch up.
Su Fengyi arrived at the Imperial Guard’s encirclement and saw the guards holding a large net, preparing to capture the trapped prey.
The prey in the circle was none other than the Emperor’s recent beloved pet—the auspicious white tiger presented by King Pingliang.
The great white tiger roared and snarled incessantly, startling flocks of birds from the forest.
Behind the great tiger, a small cub trembled as it lifted its head, imitating the big tiger’s posture with a feeble roar.
Great White Tiger: Roar, roar, roar, roar!
Little White Tiger: Meow, meow, meow, meow!
Seeing the little white tiger, the Emperor’s face lit up with a smile. He swung his spear with a whooshing sound and laughed heartily:
“You beast, where do you think you’re running? Seize that little one for me!”
Su Fengyi’s heart melted at the sight of the little white tiger, yet trembled at the roar of the great tiger.
She truly couldn’t understand—wasn’t living well enough? What was the Emperor thinking, provoking a mother animal with her cub? It seemed he was determined to take recklessness to new heights.
But since the boss was happy, she couldn’t spoil the mood. She moved closer to the Emperor and made small talk:
“How did you find it? Your Majesty, you’re truly remarkable.”
Three months ago, the great white tiger had given birth to a cub, which the Emperor adored. He would visit daily to pet the little tiger, hold it, kiss it, lift it high, and never tired of seeing it eight or ten times a day.
A few days earlier, the great tiger had seized an opportunity when the tiger-keeping eunuch was distracted, grabbed her cub, bitten through the cage, and escaped.
With no big cat to pet, the Emperor was furious. For days, he had led the Imperial Guard to comb the hills around the Leopard Chamber, all to find this little white tiger.
Having found the cub, the Emperor was so delighted that he momentarily forgot he was angry with the Grand Princess. He replied proudly:
“Of course! No matter who it is, they can’t escape my grasp!”
Then he realized—wait, I’m supposed to be angry with my royal sister. Why am I talking to her?
But according to the rules they’d followed since childhood, no matter how cold the war, whoever spoke first would lose.
Besides, she was his royal sister after all. Since he’d already spoken, he might as well hear her excuses.
So the Emperor adopted a colder tone and asked:
“I saw you looking quite happy when you arrived. Did something good happen?”
Ah, the cold war was over. Excellent, excellent.
Su Fengyi seized the opportunity and huffed:
“What good news could there be? On the way here, I ran into that old man Song Jiamo. So annoying, he really infuriated me!”
Hearing Su Fengyi’s words, the Emperor’s heart stirred, and he thought to himself:
“Huh? What’s going on?
Qiao Gui said that my elder sister and Minister Song were having a secret conversation by the lakeside, talking happily, and he didn’t know what they were plotting. Minister Song even performed the Kowtow Ceremony for my elder sister. Could it be that Qiao Gui saw it wrong?”